1. Field of the Invention
This invention has relation to an adhesive holding device which can secure an object indefinitely to a non-smooth, wall-like supporting surface without the use of bolts, screws, epoxy glue or the like. Elements of the device can be easily and substantially instantaneously permanently separated from each other to detach the object from such supporting surface without having to disengage screws, nuts and bolts or the like and without having to risk damage to the wall and the secured object while prying the object loose from the grip of the usual "permanent" glues.
2. Description of Prior Art
To support objects such, for example, as emergency first-aid kits, wall-mounted shelves and cabinets, and the like, it is customary to use nails, screws, and nuts and bolts. Such objects can also be so supported using epoxy glues, and similar "permanent" adhesive materials. When these objects have to be moved to another location or removed permanently, screws, bolts and nuts, or nails have to be disengaged; or the bond between the wall and the object has to be broken, usually with damage to the object, to the wall, or to both.
Laminated, self-adhering holding devices such as those used for hanging pictures and other objects, for example, are well known, and several have been developed by the present inventor. Such devices are shown in his U.S. Patents including U.S. Pat. No. 3,098,272 granted to him on July 23, 1963; U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,795 granted Mar. 22, 1966; 3,325,083 granted June 13, 1967; U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,339 granted Mar. 28, 1967; U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,249 granted Dec. 24, 1974; U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,768 granted May 27, 1975; U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,538 granted Jan. 18, 1977; U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,137 granted Jan. 12, 1982; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,498 granted July 12, 1988. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,617 granted Apr. 17, 1984 appears not to be pertinent to the present invention.
Use of a construction including a resilient layer "for complete conformance and attachment to a supporting surface and to its irregularities . . . of a relatively rigid and inflexible construction" was earlier discovered by the present inventor and set out in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,538 at column 1, lines 6-12 and 52-58; column 2, lines 55-63. This same concept is set out in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,137 beginning at column 3, line 49, and ending at column 4, line 20. In order to obtain the advantages of this resilient layer as set out in his '538 patent, he then thought it necessary to cover both sides of the resilient layer with a layer of thin, nonstretchable material. He taught that the resilient core layer had to "be stabilized by the thin non-stretchable layer at each outer side thereof." See also independent claims 1, 6 and 7 of that patent. His patent '137 covered the use of two polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheets, each with two adhesive surfaces, the PVC sheets being joined to an intermediate layer of tissue paper or other non-fusible or rupturable material. As a modification of this structure, he added a layer of "suitable foam material" which overlays the outward side of at least one of the layers of PVC. He disclosed a resilient layer of substantially the same thickness as that of either one of the PVC layers. The effect of this structure was "to provide a degree of yielding effect for intimate adherence to a textured surface." See the '137 patent, column 4, lines 10-17; claim 2; and FIG. 10.
What was not available before the present invention was a greatly simplified holding device which utilized a relatively thick resilient pad, bonded to a single sheet of thin, flexible, non-stretchable material to stabilize the resilient pad, and, at the same time, providing the smooth, polished, non-porous surface needed to bond with a similar surface of a single sheet of plastic laminate such as PVC.